joining me now jeff toobin, cnn senior legal analyst and bruce bartlett. the columnist and former treasury official in the reagan administration. jeff, quickly, the trillion dollar coin, this isn't going to work, is it? >> legally, i think it could work. i think the law is unlike many laws, actually very clear. this is something that is within the secretary of the treasury's authority. he could issue this coin and it would get the u.s. government past the immediate stumbling block of the failure to raise the debt ceiling. that's a legal matter. as a political matter, i think it's basically a nonstarter because it seems comical and it seems ridiculous. >> bruce, you suggest an alternate strategy which is one bill clinton has talked about and colombia law professors do. which is the president should essentially say, i have the implicit authority to raise the debt ceiling without congress, correct? >> that's right. of course, i'm not a legal scholar, but i do oppose the existence of the debt limit. i even testified before the senate finance committee that we